Digest

June 6, 2006|Staff Reports

BOCA RATON

Legislators warn of student loan changes

Interest rates on federal student loans will increase next month, and U.S. Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., and state Sen. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, are urging students and parents to consolidate their school loans before July 1.

Miller and Klein made their remarks during a visit to Palm Beach Community College's Boca Raton campus on Monday.

The planned increase of about two percentage points is one of the largest in the federal loan program's history, lenders said.

Miller and Klein also spoke against the recent slashing of federal student aid programs.

About 33 percent of PBCC's 50,000 students receive financial aid.

PALM BEACH COUNTY

Candidates to address several public forums

Candidates in several key county primary contests will appear Wednesday at a public forum.

The League of Women Voters of Palm Beach County and the Alliance of Delray Residential Associations is sponsoring the event, which starts at 9:30 a.m. at the South County Civic Center, 16700 Jog Road, west of Delray Beach.

Candidates in the Democratic primaries for one state Senate seat and three state House seats, generally based in South County, and the countywide post of tax collector have been invited to participate.

LAKE WORTH

Toddler crosses street, drowns in pool

A 2-year-old boy drowned Sunday after he crossed the street and ended up in a neighbor's pool in the 1800 block of 17th Court North, police said.

Jose Rodriguez Jr. died at JFK Medical Center in Atlantis. The brother of Rodriguez's mother found the boy at the bottom of the pool, police said. The child had been in the care of his grandfather.

Police have made no arrests.

JUPITER

Three suspects held in McDonald's robbery

Police have arrested three people who they said were behind a McDonald's robbery that netted them about $10,000.

Edwin Baker and Adrian M. Vela walked into the restaurant at 6760 W. Indiantown Road shortly before 2 a.m. May 18 and ordered the manager to open the safe at gunpoint, police said.

Shannon E. Roberts, 24, an employee of the restaurant, then picked up Baker, 18, and Vela, 19, at a nearby Kentucky Fried Chicken, according to police.

Roberts later confessed to police, investigators said.

Detectives charged Baker and Vela, both of Jupiter, with armed robbery.

Roberts was charged with being a principal in an armed robbery.

Test confirms raccoon that bit man was rabid

State lab technicians confirmed Monday that a raccoon with rabies bit a man, the Palm Beach County Health Department said.

The raccoon bit the man, whom officials did not identify, when he tried to protect his pet birds from the raccoon in the backyard of his home in the 5500 block of Center Street, an unincorporated area surrounded by Jupiter. The man is being treated with a series of five shots.

I-95 UPDATE

The Florida Department of Transportation reports the following on Interstate 95:

Two southbound lanes from Sixth Avenue South to 10th Avenue North will be closed from 9 p.m. tonight to 5 a.m. Wednesday.

Two southbound lanes will be closed at 17th Avenue from 9 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. through Thursday.

Two lanes in each direction from just south of to just north of the Southern Boulevard interchange will be closed from 8 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. through Thursday.

Call 561-641-6440 weekdays during business hours for more information.